Green’s Dictionary of Slang

-er sfx2

[the ‘Oxford -er’ sfx appeared ‘early in the Queen’s [i.e. Victoria] reign’ (Ware) or was ‘introduced from Rugby School into Oxford University slang, orig. at University College, in Michaelmas Term, 1875’ (OED). The absence of any such terms from the seminal (and slang-laden) Oxford novel The Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1853, by ‘Cuthbert Bede’) makes the later date far more likely. Strictly jargon, given its use at Oxford, it has moved into wider areas, typically fresher, a university freshman, footer, football, soccer, football and rugger, rugby. The extreme uses, e.g. pragger-wagger, the Prince of Wales and wagger-pagger-bagger, a waste-paper basket remain strictly Oxford and 1900s–20s Oxford at that. For a fuller discussion see M. Marples, University Slang (1950); inter alia he suggests the importation came not from Rugby but from Harrow, seemingly attested by cite 1863 at footer n.2 (1)]

used to create slangy formations of nouns by shortening the original noun and replacing the missing letters with -er. When the word is a monosyllable, this can be extended by the sfxs -agger or -ugger.

Show quotations
[UK]Isis 8 June 26/1: At the close of the Lancashire match we heard one man ejaculate [...] ‘This is breath-ers’. [...] This [...] is all that remains of the [...] expression ‘breathless excitement’ [OED].
[UK]Daily Tel. 14 Aug. in Ware (1909) 121/2: There has been a furore at Oxford in recent years for word-coining of this character, and some surprising effects have been achieved. A freshman became a ‘fresher’ in the earlier Victorian era, and promises to remain so for all time and existence.
Athletic News (Manchester) 6 May 5/4: Only Varsity men in residence [...] can have but a feeble idea of a language which speaks of a waste paper basket as a ‘wagger-pagger-bagger .
[US]Atlanta Constitution 7 Apr. n.p.: Guest at a cupper last night. No brekker. Tried to keep a lekker at John’s, but got no farther than the Maggers’ Memugger when I felt queer [...] The wagger-pagger-bagger’s simply overflowing with bills [...] Heard that the Pragger-Wagger is coming up?
[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘Chops and Chips’ in Seaways 96: A chop and chips on the cheapers for the chaps.
[US]Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 568: The vocabulary of Oxford and Cambridge seems inordinately obvious and banal to an American undergraduate. At Oxford it is made up in large part of a series of childish perversions of common and proper nouns, effected by adding -er or inserting gg.
[UK]M. Marples Public School Slang 68: A few school examples are: commugger( =commumon, St Bees, 1915+), to indignagger (=to argue with a master, Aldenham, 1923+), scrigger (=scripture, Christ’s Hospital, 1910+), condagger magger (=condensed milk) and combinaggers ( =combinations. Charterhouse, PSWB). But the case is not so clear as to the plain -er termination. It is rife in Oxford: such words as fresher (=freshman), lekker ( =lecture), tosher ( =unattached student), as well as more amusing coinages like godders ( =God Save the King) and langers (=Auld Lang Syne), have been used by many university generations.
[Ire]P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 143: The place is jammers, roysh, what with it being Good Friday.